Hertz Breakdown

06/20/2009 - 14:38

Posting on behalf of a fellow community member who arrived in Italy on the 17th (permanent move) and hired a car for the first few weeks until documents/car purchase finalised.  Unfortunately said Hertz hire car has broken down and ACI have taken it away but failed to take driver to hire depot.  Hertz have told her that she has to get a taxi to Ancona airport to pick up another hire car.  Is anyone familiar with Hertz breakdown policy?  She has paid for a car for 3 weeks that she has had for 3 days.  Should they not bring her a new car?  The cost of a taxi from here will be in excess of €100 - doesn't seem fair that she should have this inconvenience or cost.Thanks

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..but we had a similar situation in the states about 10 years ago - the hire company (think it was budget) just brought us a new car which they swapped for the defective one (but then ours hadn't actually broken down it just had major warning lights coming on).  From what I remember we were originally asked to go to the nearest depot (which was about 100 miles away and I refused because we had babies and because I didn't see why we should be inconvenienced.  Of course it's much easier to argue this at the beginning rather than after you have no car.  Think your friend should get on to the head office and tell them how ridiculous what they are asking is - as well as the cost there is the inconvenience.Good LuckChris

Hi Karen,Dont know if it helps but there is a Hertz office in San Benedetto. Not sure of the address but itis on one of the streets near Via Roma - thats the road leading to the railway station. I am sure theyshould be able to arrange for her to collect a car there.The other option is the train to Ancona. The train fares here are quite cheap.Hope it works out.Kath

In reply to by Fred and Kath

Some years ago we had a  Hertz  (almost new)car from Genova and travelled down to Lago Del Trasimeno, we arrived and I found difficulty getting first and second gears, ended up stuck up a hill miles from anywhere on way to the villa, Hertz truck arrived and took car away. I was told to get taxi to nearest agent in Arezzo, this was in a garage, and they wiil pay Taxi for us. So had to do this next day. Ended up with a better car,(all they had) for the 3 weeks.

In reply to by Fred and Kath

We broke down a few years ago in the North of Italy having driven from Belgium. Aci were on strike but the lady on the phone sensed my despair (3 tinies in tow) and gave me the number of the garage to ring. The head gasket had gone so they had to take the car away - we went with (sitting in the car on top of the trailer - scary). They took us to a little garage who gave us a car and told us to call back in a week. We did, car was  ready. This wasn't a hire car though. I am still waiting for a satisfactory answer from Avis, who provided us with a car WITHOUT INSURANCE in April. I'm still furious, Still don't know whether I'm going to get a huge fine from the Polizia-see previous posts

Hertz should deliver a new car.  I had a breakdown with them in Le Marche a few weeks ago and after a lot of arguing they agreed that they should be doing this. In my case they couldn't deliver one in time (the car broke down on a Saturday night and we needed one on Sunday AM to get to the airport) and they agreed to refund the taxi fare with a limit of 400 Euro on the cost. The taxi was 140 Euro to Ancona and one email to the UK office sorted out an immediate refund.I would say however that their first response was to wash their hands of it and say it wasn't their problem, it took a lot of pushing and reading parts of the contract to them before they agreed they should be doing more to help!Good luck ...brancusi

Thanks everyone for your responses.  We have sorted it today.  Hertz adamant they couldn't bring a new car out so they have a €170 taxi bill and a letter of complaint to deal with.  She has a replacement car but I must say I have never seen such a weather beaten vehicle from Hertz - maybe we were always lucky!  The replacement has so many dents and scratches you'd think it had been used on the fair ground dodgems.

 It may be advisable to take a few pics of the condition of the replacement car, particularly those dents and scratches and to forward them to Hertz with a cover letter reminding them that this is a second complaint. It will reinforce the first one and it would be considered a written and graphic proof that those damages were in existence when Hertz delivered the car.